Here I am selecting the winning names for our Team in Training fundraising raffle! We raffled off a weekend stay at Best Western, a cancer awareness bracelet, a Jazzercise gift basket, a Sidewinders gift basket and a Lenox serving dish. It was a success!

In the background is our Team in Training marathon quilt. A friend of TNT quilted it to represent the two upcoming marathons, our Rock 'n' Roll marathon in San Diego and the Mayor's Midnight run in Alaska. It is a beautiful quilt, and it represents all of the hard work that goes into fundraising and training. Each week a member of the team is presented with the quilt to signify hard work and dedication to the cause. I earned it that week, and was proud to hang it!

Below is a photo from our day at Walmart. It was a tough crowd, but Walmart is matching all of the funds we raised that day! Special thanks to Kelley (on the right) and Scarlett (not pictured) for all of their help.

Two things I have learned...

First: I finally know that a "runners high" feels like. My 8mile run on Saturday was amazing. It started out rough, and I was dreading the rest of the run. About 3-4 miles into I decided to buck up and concentrate. I ate a Clif power shot to give me some energy, and worked on my form. Shortly thereafter, one of the TNT coaches joined me and ran the rest of the way with me. He was a life saver. Having someone to chat with makes the run go by so much quicker. I was running intervals of 5:1, and with someone there, you can't really make any excuses on why it takes so long to start running again. So, an hour and 45minutes later, I completed 8miles. Crystal had to miss our group run, so she did the run by herself later in the day. She also had a great run, and was pretty pumped by the end.

Second: I learned what an inflamed IT band feels like. I'm sure any runners out there know just what I'm talking about. I had the pain on the outside of my leg, just below my knee. I know my mileage increase is to blame, but it certainly didn't help that I played soccer the night before, and then rode up to Phoenix and back on Saturday. My legs were not happy with me. I ended up taking the day off on Monday, because rest is the best think for IT ban inflammation. Yesterday I did some strength training for my core and my legs, but not much. Today I plan to do a little bit of running, but I will take it slow and be sure to stretch the IT band area, at least as much as I can.

Congratulations to the raffle winners! You should all have been notified and most of you have your prizes, so enjoy! Thank you for participating.

This Saturday is the Climb to Conquer Cancer, so join us if you can. Check www.teamgiant.org for details. Since I will be walking the Climb on Saturday, I will do my 10 mile run on Sunday.

I'm a runner?

Well, I'm not quite sure that I'm comfortable saying that quite yet. But, I can definitely say that I have acted a bit out of the ordinary. Two things I did this week that I can honestly say I didn't think I'd ever do:
I ran while I was sick
I ran in the rain

Running in the rain was actually quite nice, running while sick, not so much.
I woke up Friday with a pretty nasty head cold. I tried to rest and fight it off, but it was in full force when I woke up at 6:30am Saturday morning. Thankfully Sudafed came to my resccue.
I went to the race walk clinic before our group run so that I could learn a bit about using my walking time to my advantage. The information was useful, and I intend to "walk athletically" during my walk intervals as much as possible.

Saturday morning continued on with me completing 4miles. I ran about 2.5 of those 4. I definitely wasn't feeling up to par, but I fought through it anyway.

The rest of the day was dedicated to fundraising! Crystal and I (with the help of a couple friends) set up shop outside of Walmart to basically ask for donations and offer raffle tickets, brownies and bracelets for sale. Let me tell you, that was a tough job and we earned every penny. In total we raised about $300 there, and we are hoping that Walmart will match those funds.

This coming Saturday, our mileage jumps a bit....6miles! I think that may be the furthest I have ever run or walked in one time frame. The Climb is 3 miles up and 3 miles back, and I always walk both ways (I do jog a bit on the way up, but that's just to socialize). So, from here on out I'm going to be breaking personal records every week! It gives me something to look forward to :)

Training

I hope you like the look of the new homepage. I figure I don't want everyone to have to be subjected to my training posts, but if you want to see them, you can find them here.

Training is coming along pretty well. We have had 2 Saturday long run trainings. As we are still early on, they were relatively short. The first was 1-2 miles and the second 2-3. I've decided to stay in the top range, so I never have to make a drastic mileage jump (thanks Hanako, for your reasoning). I also run 30minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday; 20 minutes on Friday (I've been counting soccer); Sunday is a rest day and Tuesday is a cross-train or rest day. I've already noticed a difference in how I feel during the 30min runs and during my soccer games. Its great to see such quick results.

On Saturday was had a ChiRunning clinic (www.chirunning.com), where we learned about controlling your movements so that you are not exerting excess energy. I found it very helpful, and I'm glad to have an ideal running form in my head, so that I can concentrate on that during my runs.

Tonight was an injury prevention clinic. A PT talked to us about body movements and preventing injuries. He recommended we do some strength training for our running muscles, while doing a type of motion used in running. So, I hope to try to incorporate some of those exercises into my weekly training.

The $40,000 challenge

Are you up to the challenge?

A very generous donor has offered to match all of the funds that we, as Team Giant, raise to fight cancer up to $20,000. Maybe you need to count those zeros again. Yep. That's right. $20,000. What that means is that we ALL need to step up and raise some funds! This challenge includes both of our current endeavors: Climb to Conquer cancer, and the Marathon Challenge. Either way you look at it, that is a lot of money to fight cancer and help those affected by the disease. If we can raise $20,000 we will be matched, bringing our total earnings to $40,000!! Can you even imagine it? Well, start to, because we are on our way!

Do you think we can do it? We won't know unless we try! Let's get to it!

"How can I help?" you ask. There are several ways.

1. Join Team Giant as we Climb to Conquer Cancer with the American Cancer Society or make a donation to help the team. Click here to join or to make a donation. (You have until February 5th to sign up and get a Team Giant shirt).

2. Donate to our Marathon Challenge and help Crystal and me to raise $7,200 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Click here to help us end the suffering from blood cancers. You may also mail a check to Marisa Allen at 193 W. Greer Ln. Tucson, AZ 85704

3. Pass this message along. Let your friends and family know how they can help Team Giant meet the $20,000 challenge.

4. Send me your ideas. Maybe you can't help financially, but you know another way to reach our goal. Do you have an item to donate that we can raffle off? Do you or someone you know own a restaurant that will let us have a fundraising party?

I hope that you all are half as excited as I am to do our part in fighting cancer. Did you know that cancer deaths are on the decline? The only way to keep that number down is to continue to offer our support.